Both UCP and NDP governments in Alberta have made controversial changes to wildfire response in the last decade.
In this image from a video, an Alberta firefighter is shown rappelling from a helicopter. The province previously employed a unit of specialized firefighters who would rappel to quickly access remote wildfires.
Dreeshen gave two key justifications: less than two per cent of firefighters rappelled into wildfires in Alberta, and the cuts would save $23 million. For the highest-intensity fires, crews that arrived before a fire reached two hectares in size were able to contain the blaze by the following morning 94 per cent of the time, compared with 43 per cent for a slower response.The report calculates the total savings of initial containment — including land value and fire suppression costs for all wildfires in Alberta from 2011 to 2019 — at more than half a billion dollars.
Mathieu Bourbonnais, a member of Alberta's rappel unit from 2005 to 2011, said rappelling isn't always needed to get to a fire quickly, but sometimes it's the only way.
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